The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and particularly to a triple-stacked electrical connector assembly which provides sets of new and improved contacts and an improved spacer.
With the trend toward miniaturization in computer technology, a variety of stacked electrical connectors have been developed. A typical stacked connector comprises a lower and an upper dielectric housing arranged in an overlapped relationship for reducing the space occupied in a computer, plus a terminal module received in each housing. Each terminal module has a plurality of conductive terminals parallel to one another and each terminal comprises an integrally formed retaining portion depending downward for inserting into a corresponding through-hole of a printed circuit board. Additionally, a spacer is used to keep the terminals in correct alignment and pitch. Therefore, the retaining portions of the terminal module assembled in the upper dielectric housing are comparatively long, resulting in difficult positioning. Furthermore, the two-level terminal modules must be separately manufactured, thereby complicating the manufacturing process and the assembly/disassembly of the stacked electrical connector. In addition, the stacked housings may not be correctly positioned because they lack suitable retaining means.
Hence, an improved stacked electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.